Resident Evil 5 Review
Resident Evil 5 is the latest installment in the Resident Evil series. I’ve been a pretty big fan of the series over the years and while Resident Evil 5 is a welcome addition, I think it tends to steer away from all of the other games in the series…and not always in a good way.
Story:
This time out you play as Chris Redfield. Players of the series may remember Chris from the first Resident Evil. This time Chris finds himself far from a haunted mansion and instead in the town of Kajuju. Players of Resident Evil 4 will remember Leon Kennedy hunting down a form of the T virus named “Las Plagas” in Spain while searching for the president’s daughter. Well now it’s Chris’s turn, as reports of the same virus appearing in West Africa begin to surface. The Umbrella Corporation has always been a main stay of the series and this time out is no different. While the evil corporation has always like to stay behind the scenes in previous installments, they seem to be front and center this time out. Forget the haunted mansions on a hilltop. This time you’ll be fighting in broad daylight in environments that look more like something out of “Modern Warfare” game.
The real terror comes from the villagers and what the virus has done to them. Make no mistake, you’re still fighting zombies, but these zombies are not mindless and seem to be acting with a purpose.
Just as with Resident Evil 4, you will have a partner with you. Chris is partnered up with an African agent named Shiva and unlike the president’s daughter; Shiva is there to fight along side you. Without giving too much away, players will see a lot of familiar faces return for part 5. Resident Evil 5 is making a serious attempt here to tie up some loose ends from previous games. The story is solid but the original creator for the Resident Evil series, Shinji Mikami, was not part of this games development….and it shows. Gone are the things that made Resident Evil a real horror game, to be replaced with more action and sci-fi elements.
Gameplay:
It’s hard to talk about Resident Evil 5 without mentioning Resident Evil 4. The series made a major leap in game play with part 4 by doing away with the fixed camera and going with an “over the shoulder” view. This change really brought the series into the next generation and I’m glad to say that is used in part 5. A real attempt was made to keep what people loved about part 4 and make changes that added to more depth to the game. They succeeded in some areas and failed miserably in others.
Lets start with the inventory system. Resident Evil 4 allowed you to carry an attaché case that could be upgraded as you progressed through the game. Each item took up so many spots in the case depending on how big an item was. To me this makes sense and I would have loved to see this system in part 5…unfortunately it’s gone. Why? Who knows? Now you are stuck with 9 slots that cannot be upgraded at all. Worse yet, an egg takes up as much space as a rocket launcher. The old system worked really well, I have no idea why it was changed.
Another way Capcom decided to mess with the inventory system is by not allowing you to pause the game to work your inventory. They did have a creative compromise to this, in that the directional buttons on the controller allow you to switch weapons on the go, depending on where you have them in your inventory. This however only works on 4 predetermined weapons. If your dying and you need to use one of your health plants, be ready to run away to do it.. pausing and setting up your weapons and medicine are no longer an option.
As I stated before, this time out you have a partner named Shiva. She is both good and bad but to be honest she is mostly BAD! I know it must be difficult to program AI in a game but I have seen it done well enough before so that I am actually happy that I’m not in a firefight alone. Not so much with Shiva. To begin with, she does manage to take out a few enemies on her own, however anyone who’s played Resident Evil knows that you have to play like a pack rat to survive. Conserve as much as you can of what’s important for the big fights. So it’s a little frustrating when I see my partner wasting our sniper ammo on zombies that are 6 feet away from us. More importantly she will heal you when you get so much as a paper cut…it was like shooting zombies with my mother. It’s hard to complain about this since she does “save” you every once in a while.. but when you’re fighting an army of zombies and running from your partner with the same terror you have for the enemy, so that she doesn’t waste your last health plant.. it just doesn’t seem right. The game does have an online co-op mode, making it possible for anyone online to jump in and take control of Shiva…if you’re playing I STRONGLY suggest you use it.
Most of the other game play elements are copied from Resident Evil 4 and work well for the most part. The usual guns and upgrade system that has been used in the series before and as always, what you lack in strength you make up for in speed. There’s hardly an enemy you can’t take down by the strategy SHOOT SHOOT SHOOT…RUN… REPEAT.
Overall:
Resident Evil 5 is definitely a good addition to the series. I wish it didn’t take such a departure from the “horror” genre but what it lacked in scares it made up for with suspense and action. If you buy Resident Evil games to fight enormous mutants and hordes of zombies with one bullet in the chamber and one inch of health left…you will find that here. The presentation was done very well but the gothic scenery and feel of isolation has been replaced with science fiction and commandos. The graphics are top notch and while I’ve only played the PS3 version, I’ve heard to complaints from the XBOX 360 crowd. It’s remains a mystery story but it focused more on intense action sequences instead of challenging puzzles. If anything the few puzzles that you did encounter were pretty easy by anyone’s standards. All in all Resident Evil 5 is a great game, but it’s less a horror game and more an action game with a horror theme.
Score – 8.0
